Golf: Harrington, Byrd share Par-3 title

AUGUSTA: Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and American Jonathan Byrd shared the title in the rain-shortened Masters Par-3 Contest, both risking the tournament curse with the triumph. No player has won the Par-3 Contest and captured the Masters in the same year since the short-course event began in 1960, so according to the jinx neither Harrington nor Byrd will not be donning a green jacket. Harrington and Byrd each fired a five-under par 22 in the annual contest on the eve of the year’s first major tournament, staged on a special nine-hole layout adjacent to the famed Masters course. Australian Adam Scott was one stroke adrift with Masters debutante Webb Simpson on four-under as well through eight holes.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2012.